Like this:

I am working with two cameras these days: digital single lens reflex, Nikon D3100 with a 18-55mm lens, and a point and shootdigital camera, Sony H50 (15x zoom lens). The software I use to manipulate images is Corel Paint Shop Pro x4. The technique I use varies. Mostly it is two steps, local tone mapping which tends to brighten the image a little too much for my liking and then I darken the image by using the brightness/contrast function. Then after that I may try a few others things with the software. My goals is to get a darker, richer, more contrasty image. A somewhat surreal image. Sometimes that is the goal. I am never completely satisfied. My personal handicap is red green colour blindness which is a problem for more subtle colour editing.

I think it was 1973 or 74 that I directed and acted in Thurber Carnival with Theatre Mickities at the University of St. Michael’s College at the University of Toronto. We had to stage it not in a proper theatre but a multipurpose lecture and assembly hall. Our backdrop consisted of tri-flats on castors, quite tall. Our production design was black and white. The men wore rented tuxedoes, the women as close to evening wear elegance as their personal wardrobe departements could mangage, We all looked fabulous. A very talented student named Tim McElcheran painted our copies of Thurber cartoons. We used all three sides and spun them around to show an appropriate cartoon for the sketches of the show. See the black and white photo below, you can see the triflats at the back of the stage. the production was funded by the students union, SMCSU from part of their budget derived from student activity fees.

I must have been influenced by William Windom in MWAWTI to decide to do the sketch play of Thurber humour. I thoroughly enjoyed him and that show.

Grosse Île and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site of Canada commemorates the importance of immigration to Canada, particularly via the entry port of Québec, from the early 19th century to the First World War.

Grosse Île also commemorates the tragic events experienced by the Irish immigrants at this site, primarily during the typhoid epidemic of 1847.

The commemoration on this site is also based on the role the island played from 1832-1937 as a quarantine station for the Port of Québec, long the main port of arrival for immigrants to Canada.

Share this:

Like this:

Some photos of a Huron village site, more precisely the midden next to the village. Midden is the polite word for the village dump, which has been sitting on the edge of a gully side that drops down into a creek. All of this near Penetang, Ontario. The village, undated at the moment, either from the 17th century and the time of the French contact time or earlier. This site was not officially known until a few weeks ago. Sadly it has been picked over to some extent by people who some call “looters” and others label them “curiosity seekers”.

Today was day one of a two day public but controlled numbers access to the site hosted by the Ontario Archaeological Society Huronia Chapter with the site under the direction of the licensed archaeologist, Dr Alicia Hawkins. The Simcoe County Forest was in on this as well. There was participation by some staff from the Simcoe County Museum.

I took photos with my Nikon D3100 and 18-55 lens, with no light or with the Metz 44 flash unit or with the Polaroid ring light attachment. It has rained hard yesterday and today, but not when I walked in and took photos. The workers had a blue tarpaulin tied between trees to shelter the area being worked and where the dirt was screen shaken and checked. Even with the tree cover there was good light and some good shots were possible.

The trees were about forty feet high. On the forest floor rich dark soil growing small treelets, a lot of maples trying to make it and most at a height of about 12 inches, which created a kind of “false floor” of green shoots to step through and discover the uneven soil below. There were also a lot of dead branches on the forest floor, but overall the walking was not too bad. I had brought along a walking stick and it was essential. My winter with an aircast on my left leg has left me with weak legs and they certainly felt weak today. On the way out on my own I missed the trail and finally emerged from the forest about a 100 yards west of where the trail was and where I had walked in but that was ok. Mosquitoes were few. As for poison ivy, time will tell, probably by morning.

This was my first visit to a public archaeolgy day. I was at the field school public day last year as well. What struck me today was the enthusiasm of the people working. Also at the hard work that is involved. I missed the monsoon moments, but the conditions were difficult. People seemed both enthusiastic and highly satisfied to participate directly in archaeology, which can often seem to be reduced to sitting in a dusty auditorium listening to a speaker with modest presentation skills talking at a series of less than pulse-pounding documentary photos. Interesting but a little detached from direct experience. So a public archaeology day allows interested folk the chance to stand on a former village site and touch the past. In this modern day that is a remarkable experience.